Hey all, I am sure that most of you have seen the Servo Waterproofing video on utube, where buddy uses "Loctite Blue RTV". I have looked and am unable to find it locally, (although the data sheet on it says it doesn't mix well with water). Regular silicone is no good either since it is acetone based and is corrosive, not good for electronics. I called GE and was informed of their "All purpose silicone II". It is not based on acetone and is therefore not corrosive. It is also non-conductive and available locally. I bought mine at Canadian Tire and an 83 mL (2.8 oz) tube is $4 and change. Although there is no Canadian Tire in the States, it is also available at Home Depot and any other hardware store. The stock number (located on the back of the tube) is SE2124 and there is a gold band at the top of the package, so there is no confusion. Thought you would be interested, J
I would recommend 3M skotchkote if you can get it. It's available in Lowes, in the electronics section. Suitable for circuitboards of all types, and even good for servos. To skotchkote a servo, all you have to do is coat the circuitboard. The rest of the servo doesn't mind water, so long as you give it an alcohol bath at the end of the day to prevent long-term corrosion. I am experimenting with this method right now, so far it seems successful. I am be giving it a combat test this weekend.
No, the pot needs to be able to move, and the skotchkote would prevent that. How about I directly quote the two major posts on the subject made by Richard Simpson, who shared this method with us just a couple days ago, so you can get a better idea how this method works.
AAAAhhhh, Thanks Gascan. I thought that the pot had to be essentailly left alone, but there are currently a lot of waterproofing methods out there, it's hard to sort them out. Were those posts made on this forum?? I don't remember seeing them before.
No, they were made on the Big Gun Yahoo Group. What I found very interesting was that the pot doesn't mind fresh water (chlorinated and salt water may be different...) Tugboat, I think that illustrates why a good float is important.
Water proofing tests complete and they were successful. I submerged the servo, a Futaba 3003, for 1hr and 25 minutes. I ran it back and forth in its full range of motion for the first 5 minutes and then let it sit. I then took it apart and inspected it for water ingress and there was none. I put Silicone 2 in the lower section, giving the circuit board a coat top and bottom. I had to reinforce the limiting transistor with a piece of rubber eraser because it wouldn't click back into place. I also coated the bottom of the transistor. I then plugged the two access holes that are under the gears with silicone and put a thin coating of dielectric grease on the gears. After assembling the servo, I coated the screw holes and all seams with silicone and put one grease covered O ring on the "drive shaft" below the arm. Steve Hill and I looked the HI TEC servo and it is similar. The difference is that the HI TEC has a removable plastic bushing in the top cover. Remove that and add two greased O rings. You should notice a slight resistance when you shut the servo. J
Pamnjay, how deep did you submerge the servo? Was that a "kitchen sink" test, or a "bottom of the pond" test?
It was only 12 inches deep. The at depth test(6feet) is next. I chose 6 feet because the ponds we will be in are no deeper than that.
Depth test complete, sorry for the delay. The servo sat at just over 6 ft for 1 hour, no leaks that I could detect in the HI TEC 311, the Futaba 3003 had a little bit in the top portion where the gears are. Since I siliconed the holes that go through to the electronics section in the Futaba, there was no water in there. The HI TEC worked better with the two O-rings inside. Be careful not to use too much grease since it is thick and will slow down the movement. So the HI TEC is going to be the rudder servo and the throttle servo and the Futaba's are going to be in the box as firing and pump servoes. J
